Suspect in Russell Township homicide arrested, but not yet charged

Police investigate a woman's body found Tuesday at a home on Cloveridge Road in Russell Township.

The man suspected of killing a woman in Russell Township has been arrested.
Clayton Phillips, 18, was arrested sometime overnight and is being held at the Geauga County Safety Center in Munson Township on a probation violation and has not yet been charged in the woman’s death, said Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz.
More information will likely be released later today, Flaiz said.
In an email on Wednesday morning, Geauga County Coroner Dr. Robert Coleman identified the victim as Ruth Phillips. The cause and manner of death is still under investigation.
According to the 911 call log for the incident:
At 6:48 p.m. a resident requested a welfare check on her “elderly friend” who lives at 8419 Cloveridge Road. The woman was about 80 years old and “just recently had her troubled grandson move in with her.”
The caller had spoken with the grandson and he had “been misleading” and gave “conflicting reasons why his grandmother can not come to the phone.”
Russell Township police and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation were at the Cloveridge Road residence Tuesday night into Wednesday morning investigating.
Clayton Phillips was scheduled to appear for a video arraignment on his probation violation charge in Chardon Municipal Court at 11:30 a.m. He also has prior criminal history with Ruth Phillips, court records show.
In 2013, Clayton Phillips was convicted of first-degree misdemeanors of unauthorized use of a vehicle and theft, with Ruth Phillips listed as the complainant in both cases. The theft charge was originally a fifth-degree felony, but was amended to a misdemeanor, according to Chardon Municipal Court records.
He was sentenced to 180 days in jail with 120 days suspended and ordered to pay $584 in restitution to Ruth Phillips before March 31, 2014, which has not yet been paid. He also was placed on probation for one year ending Nov. 6, 2014, according to court records.